Apparatus for burning liquid fuel



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E. H. PEABODY APPARATUS FOR BURNING LIQUID FUEL Filed March 9, 192? 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INENTOR E. Elm BY mm 81m ATTORNEY em 16 m4.

E. H. PEABODY APPARATUS FOR BURNING LIQUID FUEL Filed March 9, 1922 INVENTQR ATTORNEY 2 Sheets-Sheet. 2

Patented Sept. 16, 1924.

ERNEST H. PEABODY, 0F ?ELHAM MANOR, YORK,

srrsnarus non. BURNING LIQUID FUEILQ Application filed March 9, 1922. Serial No. 542,252.-

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ERNEST H. PnABonY, a citizen of the United States, and resident of Pellham Manor, in the county of Westchester and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Im rovements in an Apparatus for Burning 'quid Fuel, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to an improved method of burning liquid fuel particularly in furnaces whereby the currents of air and gases produced by combustionare controlled, complete combustion is promoted, and higher capacity and econom are assured. The in' Vention applies partlcularly to the combustion of liquid fuel when atomizediand sprayed into a furnace by meansofm'echanical atomizers, and the air forcomlpus tion is admitted with-and around theoil spray through a properly designed airiregister.

It has long been understood that in certain types of furnaces great advantages are derived through giving to the air for'combustion a rotary or whirling motion around the oil spray. The latter is usually conical in form and does not itself rotate although the spray be produced by centrifugal force set up by rotating the liquid within the burner tip. The particles of liquid which leave the orifice under the influence of centrifugal force fly off in straight lines diverging from the orifice and formin a thin hollow cone of various degrees 0 angle. However, in the event that the air entering for combustion around the ,sprafy is given a rotary motion, the particles 0 the liquid are picked up and whirled along b the air in the spiral path taken thereby with the result that there is not only an intimate mixture of liquid and air, but the products of combustion, as they, in gaseous form,- rapidly take the place of the oxygen of the air and mix with the nitrogen, continue on through the furnace with the same rotary or whirlwind effect.

Tests have shown that in a furnace into which a number of burners are simultaneously injecting liquid fuel, particularly in those cases where the combustion rate is high, the combustion is more perfect when a rotary motion of the ases is set up around the axis and extended axis of each individual burner. It has heretofore, when using this plan, been the invariable custom to rotate the air in the same .direction around each burner, eitheif clock wise or counter-cloc'k-wise, the burnersibein set adjacent to each other, equally space and in ymmetrical arrangement throughf the boiler rent or front furnace wall. Soi long as the gases travel completely away from the front toward the'rear of the furnace, the effects, as stated, have been found: to be satisfactory. Furthermore, in those forms a of furnaces where the gases do not all flow back from the front but immediately pass sideways into thefbank of tubes of the boiler, the rotation of the gases around each burner axis in the same direction is still beneficial and preferable to the non-rotary method of combustion so long as the rotation of the air and gas does not take place at 'too high a rate of speed.

i 7 However,- experimental tests have shown that ahigh speed rotary motion causes an I accomplish this result by a combination.

of clock-wise and counter-clockwise rotation of the entering air. Experimental investiy gations show a decided superiority over the previous methods of combustion, both under th special furnace conditions named above and also in those cases where the single direction of rotation has heretofore appeared satisfactory.

In the'drawings:

Figure 1 is he front elevation of a well known type of furnace with a common arrangement of five burners.

Figure 2 is a horizontal section of the same.

The furnace front A is provided with five oil burners 1 of any usual or desired type of spray burner, and surrounding each burner 'is an air director also of a well known type in which blades may be set at difierent angles to admitagreater or less amount of unequal or one-sided flow of gas when the a air but to always give the same a rotary motion. The burners 1 and associated air directors 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 are arranged as shown in two rows, three in the lower row 5 and two in the upper in a symmetrical group.

The air directors 2, 3 and 4, being in this instance the two at the left side and the lower middle one are set to give the air passing through a left hand or counterclock-wise rotation, while the directors 5 and 6, or the two at the right hand side are designed to give the air passing therethrough a clock-wise or right hand rotation. While this is the preferred arrangement in the furnace shown, various other combinations of clockwise and counter-clockwise rotation may be used with beneficial result.

As indicated in Figure 2, the air passing through the director 2 forms a gradually increasing spiral B with a left hand twist, while the air passing through the director 6 moves in the path indicated by a similar spiral O with a right hand twist.

Obviously my invention is not limited to the precise arrangement of burners illustrated as it can be applied to any group of burners. Neither is it necessary that the selection of burners for right and left hand rotation be precisely the same as herein illustrated. In any symmetrical arrange-v ment it will probably be found that as nearly as possible there should be an equal number of air whirls of each type and that these should be symmetrically arranged. Tests may be necessary in some cases to determine just what arrangement will give the most advantageous results.

While the mechanical atomizer is the preferred type, the liquid may be sprayed by bustion is admitted around the spray in a manner which will give the gases a rotary motion.

I claim as my invention:

1. In a combustion chamber the combination of a plurality of burners for producing a-plurality of flames or columns of burning gases, and an air director for each burner to supply air currents which will impinge upon the flames andthereby give the latter a rotary motion about their axes, some of said air directors arranged to rotate the air currents in one direction and others in. an opposite direction.

2. In a combustion chamber the combination of a plurality of atomizers arranged adjacent each other in symmetrical arrangement and a separate air director foreach atomizer to direct air currents which will give the flames from the atomizers a rotary motion, some of said air directors being arranged torotate the currents in one direction and others in the opposite direction, the two types of air directors being arranged as nearly symmetrically as possible.

.3. In a combustion chamber the combination of a plurality of-burners for producing gases, means for directing the air for combustion for these burners to give the flames a rotary motion about their axes, somev ERNEST H. PEABODY.

a plurality of flames or columns of burning 

